Sammi set for four events at World Championships

Scotland’s leading wheelchair racer, Sammi Kinghorn, is looking to extend a good run of form at next month’s World Championships in Doha.

Sammi, aged 19, from Gordon,was this week named in the British team for the games which run from October 22-31.

She will be competing in a range of events, appearing in the T53 1oom, 200m, 400m and 800m races.

Of those, she said this week that the ‘middle’ distances are her preferred races.

“The 200m and 400m are my favourites, because it’s not like the 100m where you can’t afford to muck up your start, and also because unlike in the 80m you don’t have to change lane with everybody else trying to do the same thing.”

She added that while she misses home a little bit hen she’s away, she enjoys the camaraderie of the athletics team travelling together, and she was looking forward to “ a bit more sunshine than we get here in Scotland, hopefully!”

The whole trip will see her away for three weeks, and although the athletes “see a lot of each other” in a pre-event holding camp, once the races get underway in earnest she will be focussing her energies on her own events and preparation.

Her aim, she says, now to get in the finals of all her events.

To that end, she is training as usual in the Borders.

“I train a lot at home, I have rollers there to train on,” she said, “and other than that, I can work on the road, or sometimes go along to Tweedbank to do it there.

“And the odd times I can go up to Glasgow to train with my coach, Ian Mirfin. He’s been my coach since I started, so it’s great to be able to get up there and train with him.”

Sammi will be joined in Qatar by Dunbar runner Maria Lyle, who despite being only 15 is already a world record holder and double European champion.

Lyle will be returning to the Middle East for the first time since the Dubai Grand Prix in February, when she broke the 200m T35 world record once again, this time running 30.53.